28/09/2018
Congratulations Kalopsia Films "Hammersmith: Hurdle of Dreams" Directed by Kyle Leland (Illinois) is a Fall 2018 Official Selection! https://hubs.ly/H0dY1cL0
Synopsis: A narcissistic filmmaker follows his dream to make awful action movies, while his cast & crew struggle to navigate his idiocy.
Bio: Kyle is a White Sox fan born & raised in Wrigleyville, and the only ginger in an Irish-Catholic family of 7. A natural storyteller, his first films were psychedelic, experimental documentaries that ruffled the feathers of the priests in charge of the film program at his high school. Kyle studied filmmaking at several institutions in Southern California and Chicago before working almost 10 years as a staff PA on major studio movies and TV shows wrangling and placing extras. More recently, he has shot, edited, and directed commercials and hype videos for the Chicago Blackhawks, Chicago Cubs, Subaru, Wilson, local theater companies, bands, and many evil corporations. Now, he limits his freelance work to focus on writing and directing fictional narrative shorts and features. His dream is to one day be successful enough that he no longer has to write his own bio.
Director’s Statement: Ryan Hammersmith is an international spy chasing war criminals around exotic landscapes. He is also the ridiculous brainchild of filmmaker Bayou Straights, a newcomer in the DIY film world. He and his crew are documented through behind-the-scenes footage and interviews during the production process of Bayou’s first action/ adventure trilogy.
On August 25, 2017 at 6PM, the producers of this short film showed up to Chicago's 48 Hour Film Project kickoff event. We randomly chose a genre out of a hat, then received a prop, character, and line of dialogue. From that moment, we had two days to write, shoot, edit, and bring a film based on the requirements back to the event before 6PM on August 27th.
A few weeks later, we swept the Chicago awards ceremony with 7 wins including Best Film. Internationally, we made the top 12 films chosen to screen at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.
In shooting and traveling the world with this film, our small cast & crew grew into tight knit group of friends. And the importance of those bonds is exactly what the film, and now the web series, tries to communicate to its ego-driven, yet redeemable anti-hero... while also trying to be funny and stuff. Just watch it.
